Emails from internal Lincoln projects show how a Charlottesville Tiki Torch Stunt went wrong

Da Lauren Windsor, a Democratic operator working on the Lincoln Project sent five young people dressed in khaki, white shirts and sunglasses to hold tiki torches in front of Glenn Youngkin’s campaign bus as it docked in Charlottesville, Virginia, last Friday, she never considered that people might think they were actual white supremacists.

The Tiki torch stunt was intended to repeat the far-right demonstration of power in the city in 2017 and visually tie Youngkin’s campaign for Virginia’s governorship with former President Donald Trump – a manifestation of the Democrats’ ultimately doomed strategy of not attacking Youngkin alone, but eating him by his affiliation with Trump. Instead, when local media painted the stunt as a true demonstration of white supremacy, and it was amplified by the campaign of Democrat Terry McAuliffe, a former governor of the state, it spiraled out of control, with the Lincoln project claiming only the credit for it. . much later in the day.

Although Democrats would later be accused of making a white supremacy scam, the ill-conceived stunt always intended to be transparent, that its intention was to connect Youngkin with Trump and the infamous Charlottesville protests, and that its author was in fact the Republican Never Trump operation, Lincoln Project, according to interviews with participants and simultaneous communication reviewed by The Intercept.

At the heart of the stunt that went wrong was a belief among members of the Democrats and the Lincoln Project that the key to defeating Youngkin was not a populist attack on the corrupt source of his wealth, the Carlyle group, which the Democrats effectively did with the then presidential candidate. Mitt Romney and Bain Capital in 2012, but instead of bending him over to Trump. “We’re here to remind Virginians what a Donald Trump support really means,” the actors were asked to say if asked.

It was never meant to seem genuine, according to Lincoln Project scheduling emails shared with The Intercept. And the strategy failed overall, with Youngkin beating McAuliffe directly into a state that President Joe Biden and Governor Ralph Northam have won by a landslide in recent years.

But on Friday, the Internet and local media took it seriously, especially after the image was boosted on Twitter by the social media staffer for the McAuliffe campaign – first thinking that the protesters were in fact white supremacists (one of them is a woman and one is Black), followed by conservative media trying to identify the participants and along the way publicly name young Democratic agents who had nothing to do with it.

The evening before the event, Windsor and Lincoln Project officials exchanged final messages outlining their plan. Windsor shared emails with The Intercept to demonstrate that she did not intend to create a hoax, allowing us to review her inbox to demonstrate that emails were not processed. As a condition of providing emails, she requested that the names of Lincoln Project officials be kept anonymous as she was not allowed to share them.

Operators were asked to reveal to any journalist who asked if they were there on behalf of the Lincoln project. The problem for the actors: No one in the media approached them. They were probably intimidated by the drizzle, said Pete Callahan, another Democratic operative.

A lawyer from the Lincoln Project wrote to Windsor and others with the following legal advice: “If they are asked who sent them, there is no legal requirement for them to identify TLP. But it is also fine if they do more a press / optics question for you.If you wanted to be more generic, they could say something along the lines of, ‘A group that thinks Glenn Youngkin would bring Donald Trump’s policies to Virginia’ or something like that. They could not say anything either. “

In a response, Windsor made it clear that the plan was to be transparent about who they worked for:

1. IAN IS JUST SPEAKING

Only questions that need to be answered are:

Who are you with? We’re here with the Lincoln project.

And why are you here? We’re here to remind Virginians what Donald Trump’s support really means

No comment on other issues.

The instructions also included the mundane (“Brigade should not be on phones – we need the visual to be clean”) for the security related. “De-escalate if people start threatening you. Don’t get involved,” the note instructed.

Email from Lauren Windsor.

Screenshot: The Intercept

Later in the evening, the lead organizer on the ground, Ian Golden, confirmed that he had received the instructions.

“Understood. Lauren – I’m texting you when we jumped, when we arrived, and when we’re ready,” he said.

The five tiki torch-swinging stunt artists gathered in the rain, and to any sensible person it seemed clear that they were performing a performance. Their khakis in several cases looked more denim than khaki; they were wearing sunglasses in a drizzle. Did we mention that only three of the five were white men? Beyond that, the notion that even white supremacy at this point would emerge with tiki torches and khaki begging beliefs.

The story first began circulating online when a local NBC News reporter posted a picture of the affair:

Her tweet was then boosted by the social media staffer for the McAuliffe campaign, who took the stunt seriously. Democratic operative Adam Parkhomenko then boosted the Olaf post and sent it viral through Virginia Twitter. That was when the attempted stunt became an unintentional scam.

Screenshot: The Intercept

On Twitter, a number of journalists – including me – noted several of these absurdities, speculating that a democratically oriented political operation was probably behind it.

The Daily Caller, meanwhile, began chasing the identities of the five torchbearers and eventually reportedly managed to identify two of them. Alec Sears, the Daily Caller reporter, said on Twitter that he was “confident” in his identification of an operator, while the other had “strong resemblance” to another person whom he mistakenly identified. The Intercept reviewed both driver’s licenses and both Sears’ identifications were incorrect. (Sears did not respond to a request for comment.) When the falsely accused Democratic agents made their social media accounts private, the move was cited as further evidence of their guilt. Only one of the five people involved in the scene was a Democratic operative – Golden – while the rest were hands-on, and The Intercept agreed to keep their names private.

In the afternoon, the Lincoln project finally took the credit and issued a statement. There was also speculation from some – again, including me – that the Lincoln project might only take responsibility for the operation after it went bad, so it would be blamed on Republicans rather than Democrats. That mindset was too wise for half, as the correspondence shows that the Lincoln project and its lawyers were involved in good time in devising and performing the stunt.

Golden, on earth the organizer of the action, told The Intercept that it never occurred to him that people would not understand that they were doing a stunt. Just the week before, he said, he and Windsor had been blocked by Youngkin’s staff from an event. “They know who I am, they know it was me,” Golden said.

Windsor said she called Parkhomenko to tell him it was a Lincoln Project stunt, and agreed with the Lincoln project to claim credit. However, hours passed before any public statement was made.

“It did not make sense to me that it would not be a stunt. I just assumed no one would think it was real. “

Callahan was assigned to be outside the filming of the event. He confirmed that the other four leased hands were not the ones identified by the Daily Caller, saying the delay in claiming credit was due to Lincoln project operators considering their opinion. “I was surprised that people prayed for it and thought it was not a stunt. It did not make sense to me that it would not be a stunt. I just assumed that no one would believe it is real. , ”Said Callahan.

“Much of it, at least as far as I know, was because Lincoln, who somehow called the play here, wanted to make a statement and take the time to do so. In hindsight, we should have put it down. immediately.”

The gullibility with which the stunt was met went beyond the action itself. When Babylon Bee, a conservative satirical release, joked that one of the actors was in fact Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam – a reference to his blackface scandal – actor Debra Messing, a frequent poster for Liberal resistance messages, did not appear . the joke.

Screenshot: The Intercept

Brass credulity, however funny it may be, is a symbol of a bigger problem facing Democrats. The party elite has organized its election campaign around intimidating voters like Messing with constant calls for Trump and white supremacists – effective at keeping base voters engaged and angry, but good for little else. In Virginia, not enough of the state’s voters bought into it.

The social media worker at the McAuliffe campaign, who originally boosted the image, has since made his Twitter account private and has replaced his biography with two simple words: “I’m sorry.”